


Day 6: Water

by Menatiera



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Clint Needs a Hug, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Inktober, Inktober 2017, Insecure Clint Barton, Love Confessions, Multi, PTSD, Polyamory, Steve Needs a Hug, sswh month, starkspangledwinterhawk, traumatized Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:46:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menatiera/pseuds/Menatiera
Summary: Now Steve’s the one who has a bad day, and Clint’s there to comfort him. In return, Steve reassures Clint.





	Day 6: Water

Each one of them had their good days and bad days, but sometimes it was more than that. Sometimes it was worst days, and those were the times when one or two of them were not enough to silence their demons and to make them breathe again.

Bucky and Tony had the most worst days (no surprise there), and Clint had his fair share of them too. None of them (maybe except Bucky) expected Steve to have any of them.

It was a silly assumption, really.

And now it was a worst day again. Clint had tried to deal with it at first. (Clint was always the best of comforting his boyfriends - somehow he always said the correct things and give the correct amount of affection and touch without being overwhelming - but even he wasn’t omnipotent and couldn’t help sometimes.) The archer had walked closer slowly to the crumpled mess of blankets until he had been able to hear the broken sobs that came from inside it.

Clint had a pretty educated guess who will he find, simply because Tony was dealing with his company and Bucky was on a solo infiltration mission at the time.

“Friday, what happened?” Clint asked quietly, and the AI answered just as hushed in order to not startle Steve.

“I’m afraid a sudden spray of cold water during shower sent the Captain into a near-catatonic flashback.”

Clint sighed. He didn’t ask Steve if he was all right - he’d say yes, even though it was obviously not the case -, but he thumped his foot a little harder to the floor, hopefully warning the other one of his presence, if this little conversation didn’t do the trick already.

Then he decided Cap is always so serious, a little childishness might be the best tactic. “Incoming!”, Clint shouted from the top of his lungs, and launched himself to the blankets.

“Ow!” The sobs stopped to be replaced with painful grumbling, and Clint grinned like a maniac.

“Hiya, Cap!” He peeled off some layers of blankets. There was a worrying amount of them piled on the bed, and when he finally found Steve, the sight wasn’t reassuring at all. Clint touched his shoulder. Instead of the usual hot, the skin under his palm was almost cold, and Steve didn’t scold Clint at all for his action. Steve returned to mumbling to himself, eyes closed, forehead pressed firmly down on the mattress.

“No please, I don’t wanna lose them, not again, not again…”

The archer’s heart ached and he glanced upwards. “Friday, please call Tony and tell him to bring Bucky back. Immediately. Steve needs him, like, yesterday.”

“Message transferred, Mr. Barton.”

Now that it was settled Clint turned his full focus back on Steve. He hastily peeled off his own shirt and wriggled himself under the blankets, worming his body next to Steve. The supersoldier was cold with terror, still shaking and a bit wet. The mattress around him was soaked, which didn’t help warming up at all. Clint gently nudged him with his toe, then smacked a wet, theatrical kiss on his cheeks.

“Hey, sweetheart, it’s all right.”

Finally, finally Steve reacted: his hand flew and he gripped Clint with an almost untraceable speed, yanking the archer close. “Aww, Steve, strength”, the archer grumbled, certain that the supersoldier will unconsciously break his ribs at this rate. At best Clint will have bruises where he was grabbed. Neat.

“What happened, darling?” Clint pestered his lover’s tearstained face with light kisses. Steve closed his eyes shut, and loosened his hold only a tiny bit, but he arranged his whole body around Clint’s, legs entangled. “It’s alright, Steve, you’re safe. We’re safe”, Clint continued his murmuring.

“I don’t wanna lose you”, Steve finally managed to say.

“You won’t, Cap”, Clint reassured. “I’m here, and Bucky’s on his way, too. You’ll see, he’s safe as ever.”

Steve nodded. “Good.” He seemed to be able to relax a bit, but then tensed again. “Tony?”

“He’s coming, too.” Clint smiled. “The most vicious danger he has to face is boredom caused by businessmen.”

“I… I wanna hold you all, if that’s okay?”

Clint rubbed the other’s back but couldn’t help a frown. “All of us? Not just Bucky?”

There was no answer for half a minute, then Steve lifted his head. “No, not just Bucky.” His cheeks and ears seemed pink, but maybe it was just the crying, at least Clint told himself. Steve sucked in a deep breath and their eyes met, and Clint’s breath was knocked out of him, because Steve’s eyes held a love so huge and fierce that it was impossible not to see how much he cared. And there was no Tony or Bucky here who might have been the cause of this expression - all of this was aimed solely toward Clint.

Sometimes he felt as an outsider in this whole polyamory relationship thing they had, and he sometimes felt jealous of his own boyfriends. Because Steve and Bucky had this deep, century-long connection that was impossible to top by anything, and Steve and Tony had the chemistry among them from the first moment they met, and Tony and Bucky had their wit and humor and similar traumas, and there were times when Clint didn’t know how to fit himself into all of this. He was not a genius, he was not a supersoldier, he was just the guy with the arrows who loved these three so deeply it kept him awake at nights.

And sure they loved him back, they cared for him, they comforted him whenever needed, but the doubts never left permanently, they were lurking under the surface, because they were always together, when they had to balance four superhero schedules there was hardly any time to be alone or in pairs. Especially for Clint, who did more undercover works than any other Avengers, including even Natasha.

So whenever Clint was with Steve, there was Bucky or Tony or both of them there too. The love he got was shared with them, and Clint was happy with that, it was still more than he ever expected from his life to turn out.

But now… he was alone with Steve. Alone with Steve who was afraid and had one of the worst days and who clinged to him like his dear life depended on holding on tight enough, and Steve looked at him like he personally hung the moon and he was the most precious thing on earth to ever exist. It was the same look that he gave to Bucky and to Tony and Clint didn’t have to share it with anyone, and it was just too much to bear.

“I love you so much, Steve”, he gasped, shaken.

“I love you too, Clint”, Steve answered, eyes still locked. “I love you so much it sometimes scares me. I have no idea how to live without you - without any of you, and that includes you just as much as it does Bucky or Tony. I’d be devastated to lose any of this. I need you, Clint. I need you to cheer me up, to prank us, to remind us that bad things are just a part of our life. I need your presence and your smell after a workout and your silly commentary on everything. I need you eating dog treats for breakfast because you mixed it with cereal and were too lazy to switch it back. I need to feel you in my arms and I need you to hold me when I’m upset and I need to you to remind me that normal life exist and we can have it too. I need you to let me love you and I need you to know that I love you. I need to hold you in my arms at night when you have a nightmare and I need to kiss you and I need you to let me bring old-fashioned gifts to you and I need you to tease me about them for a whole week. I love you so much, Clint Barton.”

There was no proper verbal answer for such a confession, so Clint didn’t bother trying to come up with one.

But a kiss was appropriate enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my [tumblr](http://menatiera.tumblr.com) as well! :) I love company!


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